Thursday, November 30, 2006

I dare you to name me a good jazz flutist who isn't really a saxaphone player

It's me and Lester against the world.

However, the only real justification for this feeling I have is that dinner this evening was tasty, but monochromatic.

Work is bearable--far better than it's ever been--but still too much and overwhelming and draining. I resent it.

One more week of the semester to go. Then I can be glad the work is finished and get right down to being sad that I'm not teaching in the spring.

I also realized that I'm slightly nervous--mostly in a good way--about my trip to Oman. I've been having weird desert dreams. In going to Oman, I'm worried that I'm only traveling from one suburban, isolated place to another.

I haven't been in an expatriate compound in several years. I wonder if I'll feel alienated in the same way or in a different way.

7 comments:

It’s always good to alter the patterns of alienation from time to time, as they get tiresome.

My experience with expats is that most are cut off from the locals, but there’s always some that are not that way and can get you a lot of great introductions, and it’s just a matter of seeking those expats out. Or wander off by yourself with a good guidebook.

Yes. One reason I like to travel is because it alters patterns of alienation. Short term, it makes the reasons alienation clear: you literally are a foreigner.

Yes, most expats are cut off from local culture, especially expat communities in the middle east and Asia. In my big, generalist, everything-is-connected-mind, I've been thinking that many expat communities might not so different from suburban ones.

But I'm also just overwhelmingly tired at the end of a boring, difficult week.

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